Suspected extremists kill 22 in Burkina Faso: Sources

Suspected extremists killed 22 civilians in two attacks in the north and west of Burkina Faso, security and local sources said Saturday.

Sixteen civilians from volunteer auxiliaries backing up the army were killed on Friday in the deeply troubled north, a security source said, adding that some of the attackers had also suffered “losses.”

A resident said two other civilians also perished in the attack in a village near Boulsa, the main town in the Namentenga province, adding that the attackers also torched homes, motorcycles and the local market.

A second security source said four civilians from another volunteer auxiliary group died in an attack in the town of Fo in the west on Friday.

Fo has been repeatedly targeted by extremists in the past weeks and most of the inhabitants have fled.

Burkina Faso has been struggling with an extremist insurgency that swept in from neighboring Mali in 2015.

Anger within the military at failures to roll back the insurgency sparked two coups last year, culminating in the ascent of a young army captain, Ibrahim Traore, in September.

More than 10,000 civilians, troops and police have died in the violence, according to an NGO count, while at least two million people have been displaced.